Group report on Abandoned materials market

12/ 9/16

Abandoned materials market - Wasted

“…products are no longer bundles of functional characteristics but rather means to provide and enhance customer experiences” (Page 54 Bernd Schmitt reading)

Abandoned materials produced a market called ‘Wasted’. We really enjoyed how it repurposed things that we would throw away and take for granted into things that we would put to use. For example, we will use the bottles we got from the SecondLife Glass stall and do the ideas in our jars from The Jar Made Me Do It. It was really interactive and stalls had communicated between each other so there was a really nice connection between ideas, for example we made wallets at the Crease stall and painted them at the Printsie stall. The Abandoned Materials and Gifting themes worked really well together and all stalls were successful in this. The market had a really exciting energy to it, yet it was also had a very relaxed and easy-going flow to it. In contrast to the Impossible Things market, there was no pressure to see stalls in any specific order and there was no time pressure. This market felt like we had control over where we went and how long we spent at each stall, but still felt very organised and did not lose its structure. The atmosphere was also more lively and upbeat than our own market. 

Notes on Abandoned materials market

- The theme of the abandoned materials market was gifting
- The overall theme was used well and they has re used material very well and it showed in each and every one of all of there stalls
- Loved the idea of the zines and answering what you pulled out of the bowl - they also used old thrown out assignment paper
- The overall market was very upbeat
- They have reused old materials and out them to use well like re purposing old bottles and making them look like a beautiful piece of art from the a second life for bottles stall.
- The stalls combining like making the wallets and painting them at another stall but you could also have just a plain wallet and you could also paint on a piece of paper from the painting stall and take it away.
- We liked how you got given something useful at every stall and got to take something away
- The overall market was educational and taught you something new about something repurposed.

Final Touches

Leading up to the market we have been thinking about all the little details that are going to make our stall an engaging and relaxing experience for people. We have each been gathering and creating things to contribute. 

I have collected iced tea bottles and used them as vases to hold fake flower arrangements. I think this will act as a nice centre piece for our craft table and just add that little something extra which will help to create a nice aesthetic and vibe. I have also decorated paper cups with our stall title 'Quilt for a Cause', each in a different font, to help create the sense that our stall is about hand-made construction, creativity and uniqueness. I have been helping to collect things to contribute to our hot drink table such as raspberry and strawberry tea, lemon ginger tea, hot chocolate and chai latte sachets, and also a tea pot. We want people to be able to select from a range of hot drinks in order to attract and welcome people to our stall, as well as make their experience enjoyable. Hot drinks are also something that we are able to enjoy during our market as well. 

Impossible things - time warp market

- Time warp - past present and future, the ideas of things that aren't there yet - sort of tangible and illusive and invisible
about myths, legends, and tribal pasts
things that are little bit of stories and whats to come and whats been and gone

- Elusive (Playing with perception)
- A trick
- Trying to make things that are intangible tangible - they are trying to conceptualise and materialize the impossible
- Touch and feel stuff
- The play a game in 1 minute/ played naughts and crosses found it didn't really relate
- Able to paint your own dream
- write what we need to do more on some of the stalls because there were a lot of people and not enough people to explain what to do to the amount of people waiting
- The element of surprise worked well for the stalls - Make a deal with the devil
- Had to wait 20 mins to get in and had a continuing long wait throughout the whole market for majority of the stalls
- The doctors of office stall was very cool, interesting take on the concept but also a lot of fun
- taking you back to kindergarten - finger painting - your own birthday party - playing with play dough - tight and congested - cute little party bags were given out - make believe
- Although the children's drawings ranging from 2-13 were very cute they didn't work that well in the concept of time warp
- use of finger painting on the wall
- Proper high school detention was very funny and certainly took me back to high school apart from what we had to write about
- Quite cool how we were given out maps and flyers for the overall market
- Detention slips given out
The markets line up was well ordered but very congested and didn't allow for much freedom and room to move
- Unexplained emojis
- Upbeat music
- Bright and colourful
- noisy almost like and old school childhood party
- arrows on floor for direction
- lost hype by the time i got in there
- Organisers dressed up in costume
- Retro

Video Visualisation of our Market Offering

(Video may work on Chrome, but not on Safari)

We shared our video on the marketplace Facebook page to gather feedback and suggestions. We also want to keep in good contact with the organisational teams and other people in our market so that they are aware of what we are doing.

The idea for our stall is to allow participants to decorate a patch that will be a part of a quilt that will then go on to Wellington Children's Hospital. We want to create an environment where they can be involved, use their creativity to make something, and feel a sense of achievement and self-value that comes with gift giving. We intend to create a relaxed and social atmosphere with hot drinks, stools, cushions and fabric. We want to engage all of the senses, with nice feeling fabrics, the smell and taste of hot drinks, a nice and creative looking stall and hopefully the noise of the sewing machines can be cancelled out by maybe music and talking.

This relates to the idea of immaterial labour because, rather than being an exchange of something tangible, the participants get a sense of being a part of something useful in exchange for their participation. We also get this sense of achievement in exchange for our facilitating of the stall. Our idea revolves around gift-giving and koha.

Proposal and production snapshot

We have completed our proposal and production snapshot so that we and the organisational teams know where we are at, what we're doing and what we're going to need. 

Everything we need for our market stall to work

All of the things that we are going to need for our stall and quilt making to work.

Fabric squares - all cut
String and pegs
x2 Sewing machines
needle and thread
paint brushes
Fabric paint, glue and pens
Ribbon
cushions/ bean bags
cups, jug, plunger, tea, coffee, tea towel. cloths
Banner
Fabric to drape around to create an atmosphere
instagram cards to do
posters
photos printed for the stall
table
chairs
fabric scissors

need to look into getting some fleece to sew the finished patches to finish of the quilt

Instagram account

We have decided to create and Instagram account to add pictures of each quilt patch to. This creates what appears to be a digital quilt for everyone to look at and see everyone else's quilt patches, they also are given the ability to see what the final product looks like and so they can see what happens to the quilt and where it goes after the market.

An Instagram account gives us a technological platform with which to connect with our audience and maintain a communication that is relevant to them. It may also help to make the participants of our market feel like they are a part of something that is bigger than themselves, feel like their creative labour is valued and appreciated, and feel an ability to appreciate the final product and the work of others. It also gives us another means of facilitating the market experience and something that we can appreciate and we can feel a sense of achievement about.

https://www.instagram.com/creative_industries_1920/?hl=en

Trying out Different Materials

Georgia, Sarah and I met up at Spotlight and had a look at some different materials we could use and things that we could use to decorate patches with. We bought some fabric pens, fabric paint and fabric glue. 

We have each been starting to decorate patches in our own time to see how the materials work and how well they go through the wash. When decorating my patches I tried to think about my quilt I had when I was young, which I liked to play I Spy with, so I have started painting animals such as fish which I think the children will like. 

~Cushla

Our Offering Presentation to the Class

Our Third Coffee Meeting

We all met up for coffee at Enigma and discussed what our user experience would look like, what our preferred structural system for the market would look like, what roles we would need, and what the pros and cons were. We then created a visualisation for the class so that we could easily present our ideas and they could be understood. 

~ Cushla

Reading Summaries

Learning to Exchange Time: Benefits and Obstacles of Time Banking - Ozanne, L.

Summary - 

This reading interprets the findings of a study done about the first Time Bank in New Zealand. This study differs from most other studies done around Time Banks, as most have studied socially excluded or low income groups of people, where as this time bank was in a relatively affluent community. 

Benefits of Time Banking:

- An alternative to money, which is often based around ulterior motives

- Believes that everyones labour is equal in value

- Believes that everyone has something of value to give. Makes people feel of use.

- Redefines work as based around people helping each other 

- Builds trust and the idea of reciprocity

- Makes people feel like they belong to a community 

- Encourages respect

- Makes people realise that their help is of value

- Creates a sustainable community 

- Creates a sense of security in the community because of connections and trust

- People feel like they can ask for help

- People who would normally be on the outside are now included, creating a stronger community

Obstacles of Time Banking:

- People often find it difficult asking for help. The system only works if people ask for help as well as offer it

- People find it hard to understand that they can go into 'debt' because of the idea of reciprocity and the promise to do something for another

- People find it difficult to offer their skills and they don't believe their own skills are of value

These obstacles can be overcome by working to change peoples frame of mind around trade and labour.


Diverse Economies: Performative Practices for 'Other Worlds' - Gibson-Graham, J. K.

Summary -
This reading suggests ways in which academic practices might change to make new or marginalised economic alternatives more credible and make way for new economic worlds.

The main three ways this reading suggests we could change our attitude are by:

- Being performative
In order to change the world, we must change our understandings. Our current understandings around capitalism are designed to reinforce it's power. If we re-orient our understandings from marginalising alternative economic systems to attempting to make them more real, there becomes possibility for change.

- Having an ethical understanding
By rejecting the assumption that capitalism underlies everything, we can take all the alternatives to capitalism that exist more seriously. Once we realise that our economic system is in fact varied and has multiple identities, we have a more politically enabling understanding. We need to be explorative of new ideas, rather than trying to explain their boundaries, therefore destabilising the discourse of capitalism. This requires a bringing together of ideas, diversity, complex dynamics, and the recognition of difference and possibilities.

- Having an experimental, rather than critical approach to research
Rather than constantly looking for limitations and faults in the logistics of new economies, which always lead back to the dominance of capitalism, we could adopt a new approach to theory. One which is open to surprise and co-existence. We need to be more interested in learning rather than judging.


Towards Better Group Work: Seeing the Difference Between Cooperation and Collaboration - Kozar, O.

This reading explains the differences between cooperation and collaboration. The differences explained are:

- Collaboration works towards a common goal, rather than shared goals
- Collaboration respects each individuals offering and contribution
- Collaboration requires mutual engagement, rather than a splitting of tasks
- Collaboration requires direct interaction throughout the process
- Collaboration requires an understanding of multiple perspectives
- Collaboration requires equal input of work, ideas, perspectives and talents

This is very relevant to how our team will work in collaboration. We need to be constantly meeting up and discussing our ideas, so that we are always in communication and understanding of each other. We also need to realise each others talents and what each member can bring to the group so that we can end up creating something that we would not be able to create on our own.

- Cushla 

Brainstorming What Our Stall Will Look Like

We have been discussing what kind of environment we would like to create, whether we will be around a table or on the floor. We will continue to think about what the participants would prefer, which option would be the most comfortable, and which would be the most social and enjoyable.

Looking at possible materials to use for our idea

Vegetable Prints
Glitter Glue
Fabric Pens
Sponge Prints
Sewing/ needle and thread / buttons
String
Ribbon
Felt
Stamps
Ink
Scrap fabric pieces
Fabric flowers / shapes

Organisation Structure

This is a way we think would work well for the organisation of our market as it does not put too much pressure on any one team. We also think that there should be a Facebook group for the entire market so that is is easy to communicate between groups. 

What we Can Bring to the Team

Sarah 

Major - Fashion

Skills
- Researching
- Presentation
- Organisation

Cushla

Major - VCD

Skills
- Communication
- Time Management
- Documenting Process

Sheldon

Major - Industrial

Skills
- Research
- Facilitating
- Craft

Georgia

Major - VCD

Skills
- Communication
- Research
- Planning

Research

We have all been looking at examples of interactive artworks/ displays that we think relate to Immaterial Labours. Some of the ideas we have been brainstorming include painting, mural making, teaching people something such as origami, and playing games together. We have also been thinking more about what the exchange could be and what people would enjoy.

- Cushla

Team Crepes and signing the Collaboration Agreement

We met at a French Bakery and had crepes!

Collaboration Agreement 

Schedule 1:

Definition of collaboration 

We define collaboration as working with each others different perspectives, strengths and weaknesses to create something which we would not have been able to achieve individually. 

Schedule 2:

Goals and priorities 

Our goal is to learn how to successfully collaborate together to all achieve a grade that we are proud of. 

Schedule 3:

How will we work together?

PROCESS

We intend to use our differences in working styles to our advantage, by delegating tasks to those members most suited to that task. We will do individual work and research continually in our own time to be efficient, but we will be constantly sharing our ideas and findings with each other so that every bit of individual work is part of the group work. We intend to set each member tasks to complete before our group meetings. 

TIME

We aim to put in 9 hours of work per week towards this project. However, we understand that some weeks certain people may not be able to put in as much work as others, which we will take into account and work around. Over the 12 weeks we hope to have all contributed an equal amount. 

COMMUNICATION

We communicate regularly over Facebook as we all find it an easy and accessible form of communication. We aim to meet up outside of class at least once a week to discuss our ideas and share our individual research. Our decision making will be done over Facebook and during meetings, and we will try our best to make our ideas work together, be open minded and to compromise. 

CRITIQUE

Throughout the project we aim to give each other constructive criticism and positive critique. We want to understand each other and be aware of where each others strengths and weaknesses are so we know which tasks to delegate to which team member and how to best communicate with each other and work as a team. We are aware that we need to understand each other and communicate in order to be able to evaluate each others contribution fairly. We will also continue to discuss ideas with other teams in and out of class.

MONEY AND RESOURCES

Depending on what our offering to the market ends up being, we either want our project to cost nothing and use only what we find or have already, or to create something that is cheap for everybody e.g $10 each. Any expenses will be distributed equally and paid up front. 

20.07

Brainstorming 

Today we brainstormed ideas surrounding immaterial labour and things that could be shared/gained/traded that are intangible or different to the normal way of trading. We liked the idea of producing something in which the viewers had to participate and get out what they put in. One of the ideas we had was the idea that the viewers could anonymously share some piece of information/idea and in return they could read what others had written in some form of artwork. We are continuing to gather and share ideas and find artists/works for inspiration.

- Cushla